Sipp og Hoj!

This collection was born out of a project called: "Austurland: Designs from Nowhere", initiated and curated by Karna Sigurdardottir and Pete Collard. The project aimed to explore the possibilities for small-scale design and production in East Iceland, using locally sourced materials and skills. The work was created following a series of workshops that took place in Autumn 2013 featuring the designers Max Lamb, Thórunn Árnadóttir, Julia Lohmann and Gero Grundmann collaborating with local practitioners in East Iceland. The products were presented for the first time at Spark Design Space during DesignMarch. The project won the "Icelandic Design Awards" in 2014.

I began my project in Eskifjörður by learning basic net-making skills from local school teacher Thórhallur Thorvaldsson. After hours of careful tuition I put my new skills into practice at the net-making company Egersund Island. The company makes and repair nets many hundreds of metres long in its cavernous quayside workshops.

Working alongside the Egersund team, I used the same materials and techniques but on much smaller scale to create the Skip Ahoy collection. The collection has a theme of ‘playtime’ and features skipping ropes, hula hoops, bags and key-chains made from the hard wearing net material in a variety of colours. Some pieces in the collection include reindeer antlers and bones as handles, bringing together elements from the land and sea in East Iceland. The collection is produced by Egersund in collaboration with local craftsmen.